Who is studying social evolution of ants in America?

(Mostly ant people here. Bee, wasp people are just too much… maybe add them later). (Featured Image credit: Alex Wild)

[ Ordered randomly. Updated 2025. ]

ROSS Lab, U Georgia  

http://www.caes.uga.edu/departments/entomology/people/faculty/ken-ross.html Social polymorphism, population genetics, chemical communication in fire ants

HUNT Lab, U Georgia

http://www.huntlab.uga.edu/index.html Bioinformatic & genomics & epigenetics on social insect evolution, development, and behavior

GLASTAD Lab, U Rochester

https://www.glastadlab.org/

Plasticity of Lifespan; epigenome, hormones, and brain microenvironment: Behavioral plasticity

SASAKI Lab, U Rochester

Collective bahevior, social cognition

GOODSIMAN Lab, George Tech

http://www.goodismanlab.biology.gatech.edu/index.html Evolution of sociality & social insect comparative genomics & epigenetic inheritance & molecular base of caste differentiation & invasive biology & mating system and life history

SUAREZ Lab, U Illinois Urbana-Champaign

http://www.life.illinois.edu/suarez/ Invasive biology, colony structure & evolution and mechanics of trap-jaw ants & ecology of body size variation

LUCKY Lab, U Florida

http://www.andrealucky.com/

Population genetics of introduced ants & biodiversity & systematics and biogeography & citizen science

TSUTSUI Lab, UC Berkeley

http://scheckek.wixsite.com/tsutsuilab

Chemical communication, recognition system & evolution of social behavior & genetics and genomics of ants and bees

GORDON lab, Stanford

https://web.stanford.edu/~dmgordon/

Evolution of collective behavior, regulation of colony activity & ant-plant mutualisms & invasive biology

MOREAU Lab, Cornell

http://www.moreaulab.entomology.cornell.edu/ Biodiversity genomics , diversification of ants, phylogenetics & host-microbe symbiosis & biogeography

KRONAUER Lab, Rockefeller University

http://lab.rockefeller.edu/kronauer/ Molecular basis of social behavior and division of labor & ant gut symbiont bacteria

Social Insect Research Group, Arizona State

https://sols.asu.edu/research/social-insect-research-group

FEWELL Lab, Arizona State

http://fewell.lab.asu.edu/

Evolution of cooperation & division of labor & social scaling, social network structure and function

PRATT Lab, Arizona State

http://pratt.lab.asu.edu/

Psychology of superorganism & information sharing though social networks & collective choice & teamwork by ants and robots

DORNHAUS Lab, U Arizona

http://socialinsectlab.arizona.edu/ Collective problem-solving strategies & Efficiency, flexibility, and robustness in complex systems & Evolution of complexity & Application to human societies

MUELLER Lab, U Texas

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/muelleru/ Evolution of mutualisms, social conflict and cooperation, between fungus-growing ants and their fungi, & plants and rhizosphere microbes

Fire ant project , U Texas

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/fireant/index.html Biocontrol of fire ants, ecology of phorid fly, production and release of Pseudacteon phorid flies

VARGO Lab, Texas A&M

http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/

Urban pest management

LINKSVAYER Lab, ASU

https://www.linksvayerlab.com/

Social Evolution, transcriptomics, evolutionary genetics, behavioral ecology, corazonin

TRANIELLO Lab, Boston U

http://people.bu.edu/jftlab/Home.html Behavioral ecology, sociobiology, and neurobiology of insects

LONGINO Lab, U of Utah

https://sites.google.com/site/longinoantlab/home Neotropical and North American myrmecology.

KOCHER Lab, Princeton

http://www.kocherlab.com/ Genetics of social polymorphism & bee community ecology & selection on sociality & maternal care (not ant lab per se but work with ants)

ADAMS Lab, Ohio State

https://megalomyrmex.osu.edu/

Parasite strategies, chemical communication, alarm pheromone, venom evolution, micro symbiotic networks, reproductive strategies, species discovery.

LIEBIG Lab, Arizona State

http://liebiglab.faculty.asu.edu/index.html

Fertility signaling in ants, termites, within-colony conflicts, Endocrine basis of reproductive regulation, Sensory basis of olfactory communication, genetic and epigenetic basis of sociality

PURCELL Lab, UC Riverside

https://purcelllab.ucr.edu/index.html Population genomics, biogeography, experimental ecology, animal behavior

RUSSELL Lab, Drexel University

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~jar337/index.html Symbiosis, gut microbes, ahpids, phylogenetics

Currie Lab, U Wisconsin-Madison

https://currielab.wisc.edu/ Ant-baterial symbiosis, leaf-cutting ants, bacterial evolution, antibiotic discovery, bioenergy research

Powell Lab, George Washington University

http://www.powell-lab.net/ Interface of evolutionary ecology and community ecology

Pogonomyrmex Project, U of Houston

http://nsmn1.uh.edu/bcole/pogo/Overview.html Population biology of the western harvester ant